Lo'Rumta's Grace
by Sarowson
Summary: Not all Grineer outposts see active combat. On some far off worlds, danger is only a story heard from the reports.


Lo'rumta had never seen a Warframe before. To think that his path would cross with four of them on the border of the refining platform was something that seemed unimaginable. It was a dark night. What little light that could be offered by nearby celestial bodies was blocked by the tall canyon walls. The temperature was dropping. The sands were still. A large drilling rig descended from the sky and broke the silence against the hard sand. He pressed his back against a generator block and peeked over the railing near the ruins of the abandoned civilization. The Warframes stood attention at the drilling rig, a relatively tiny machine with a vertical spiral that rooted through the land beneath it. The heat of the generator block warmed his elbows, but a chill persisted throughout his shoulders. He touched the handle of the Viper on his hip with mild worry.

He should fight them, shouldn't he?

Lo'rumta was sure that nothing valuable could be underneath the sand at that spot. The surveying crew would be trough-food if any rare resources were so close to a facility this old and still were not excavated. What good would it serve the queens if he died right here? Surely, he should just stay hidden and wait for them to give up and go back to wherever it was they came from. That is what he should do: Minimize casualties in the names of the Queens. He felt alone. The facility slept, and he was out here freezing and afraid, worthless skuum.

The Warframes moved oddly. One of them looked like a Kavaat with gold tipped ears and sharp claws. She had Corpus blocks affixed to her forearms and a series of metal studs throughout each leg. Another Warframe was lanky and observed the world around himself with a curious sentiment. He had bright coattails and a top hat that pulsed an astral blue light. The third, Lo'rumta recognized. He was called Excalibur. He was a stout and tough looking enemy that Lo'rumta had learned about; able to cut steel with swords made of bright and burning energy. The fourth one was the most perplexing. She stood at the center of the three. She had a tranquil demeanor and a presence of power, like the eye of a tropical storm. She had a series of soft blades attached to her skirt, pylons protruding from her shoulder blades, and a tail the likes of which resembled a Karkina's. She looked around periodically, but rest her hands on the panel of the drill.

Something disturbed the Warframes. The Warframe that looked like a Kavat found interest in a patch of disturbed sand. She growled. She took two long steps before she pounced on the patch of raised sand on all fours. The rest of the Warframes looked not with their eyes but with their whole heads as she lifted a Desert Skate from the cascading sand and proceeded to hold it captive in a sideways grapple. The Warframes studied it closely. They retrieved scanners from their hips and took multiple pictures of the agitated creature. The Desert Skate lashed out with a whip-like tail and cut large gashes in the arms of the one holding it.

The Warframe stirred the sands with a brief howl of pain. The sound tore past the guardrails, and rattled the plates of the generator block. Lo'rumta bit down on his cheek in terror. He hoped in desperation that none of the refining platform's crew had been awoken by the sound. He reflexively hid behind the generator block and listened to the seconds of ringing silence. A warm blue glow flooded the surface of the sands. Lo'rumta looked to see the pylon clad Warframe closing the wounds of her comrade. She was a healer- a powerful one too. The gashes became scrapes before returning to unmarked skin. The Warframe with the Karkina tail broke away and went back to the drill's panel. She scraped several bundles of credits from the time lost capsule penetrated by the drill. She beckoned her allies after packing up. The sound of a small ship's engines was the lightest of flutters from far away. The Kavat-Warframe analyzed the sand for any indication of where the Desert Skate went. She kicked the sand and clawed at the tumbling grains. The healer pulsed with a curious sound. Beams of light circled her and branched outward. The search was fruitless. The Desert Skate was long gone. Three of the Warframes broke away, hopping up the canyon walls in the direction of the ship. The healer remained.

Lo'Rumta's knees shook. He became aware of his own heartbeat. The muscles of his throat felt tight and he kept his knees from buckling by letting them rest against the block. He looked down and saw a thin line of blue light floating through the block. It was tethered to his heart through her own. He looked up and saw the Warframe's full attention falling on him. She knew he was there. She was unreadable. Energy floated across her faceplate independent of feeling. She turned to the canyon wall, let the tether fall and followed the rest of the Warframes to the extraction point.


End file.
